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Timberland partners with Verite, an independent nonprofit social auditing, training, and research organization, to ensure that working conditions around the world are fair, legal and safe.

Verité was founded in 1995 as an independent, nonprofit social auditing, training, and research organization to ensure that working conditions around the world are fair, legal and safe. To tackle issues on work/life balance and managing stress of workers, Timberland engaged Verité to develop a more comprehensive solution to meeting the changing needs of factory workers in China. Working together, Timberland and Verité designed a program that leverages Verité’s deep practical understanding of supply chain challenges from the perspective of both workers and employers.

The program is a Training of Trainers [TOT] program, targeting Human Resources managers and trainers in factories. Through training workshops, managers learn how to identify challenges and opportunities faced by workers, use practical tools to engage them in resolving issues, measure results from engagements, and review workers’ needs over time. Timberland helped Verité create the Life Skills Training program to address practical skills, basic education, Chinese labor law, our Code of Conduct, wage calculation, health (including HIV/AIDS and SARS) and nutrition. Workers of Timberland’s manufacturing partners have also requested topics like computer use, English, and cooking. Over 7,000 workers have benefited from these programs.